Original artwork description:

Finding that my limitations as a self-taught painter were obstructing my visionary works, I started working on a series of “practice etudes” honoring famous painters. Rather than simply replicating master works, as classical students once did, I chose to create new compositions that replicate the motifs and styles of master painters along with occasional anachronistic elements.
In this etude, I pay tribute to the flamboyant, colorful style of the Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt, depicted here holding art brushes on the left. Most of the images in the painting are based on works by Klimt, with the addition of an anachronistic variation on the classic theme of Europa’s seduction by Zeus. Rather than depicting Europa being carried off by Zeus disguised as a white bull, I portrayed Europa happily covered in the Crocus or Saffron flowers which, according to the Greek legend, she had been picking when Zeus appeared and seduced her. Inspired by Klimt’s image of the hairy beast in his “Ode to Beethoven” mural, I portrayed the white bull as a long-haired highland bull.

Materials used:

Acrylic paints

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